“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11, ESV)

In a marriage relationship a husband and wife should be the biggest encouragers and supporters of each other. No matter what may be going on and what challenges may be coming, a husband and wife should always be the first ones to stand beside each other. Sometimes, that may require that we push each other to do something that may be hard.

I experienced something like this over this past weekend. We have completed our Saturday Night Service and as we were driving home, I felt really tired. I had preached a message, and we had a lot of meetings that prior week. I mentioned to my wife that rather than going to the church we had planned to go to the next morning, maybe we could just stay home and rest. At first, she agreed, and I felt relieved. But, a few minutes later she said that we really needed to go and talked through why she felt that way, the most important thing being that she felt the Holy Spirit leading us to go. So, I agreed.

The next morning, we went and as I listened to the message, I began to realize why the Lord wanted us to be there. The message was speaking straight to our hearts, and I found myself in tears at multiple points during the message as it related to situation that we are dealing with. God wanted us to be there to be encouraged and it was my wife who encouraged me to go.

I believe that most who read this article will be married. I want to ask you today, in what ways are you being an encourager to your spouse? There are many ways in which we could be an encourager, but the most important thing that we can do for one another is encourage a deeper relationship with Jesus. When we encourage our spouse to have a deeper relationship with the Lord, we both will draw closer to Him. The closer we draw to Him the closer we will be drawn to each other.

Being an encourager may not always be so easy. Sometimes in fact, we may even be discouraged to our spouse. It can be very easy to say things to our spouse that are not edifying or encouraging and instead serve to bring each other down. When this happens and the Lord reveals it to us, we should repent. We should seek the forgiveness of not only the Lord, but also of our spouse.

Today, take time to consider if you are being a source of encouragement to your spouse or a source of discouragement. If you find that you need to make some changes, or that you need to repent, don’t wait any longer. Allow the Lord to minister to you and into your marriage. If you find that you are not an encourager, ask the Lord to help you to continue on that path.